Chapter ǴǶ: Kirzner on the Morality of Capitalist Profit ȃȀȆExplanation of origins is not appraisal.Should one indeed approve
of intuitions, precepts, and practices that conduce to the flourishing of
groups and individuals? Well, it is the essence of value judgments—this
one included—that they cannot be established purely by facts and logic.
Some element of sheer moral intuition or emotion necessarily enters into
the story.
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A plausible sweeping intuition (though not an irreducibly fundamental
one) recommends what Ludwig von Mises and Henry Hazlitt, among
others, have emphasized under the labelsocial cooperation. Social cooper-
ation characterizes a well-functioning society; it is the complex of insti-
tutions, practices, shared ethical standards, and even attitudes that foster
peace, security, specialization, and the gains from trade and so ease fruitful
cooperation among individuals striving to make good lives for themselves
in their own diverse ways. Private property, the market, contractual lib-
erty, voluntary associations, and the rule of law are key elements of it in
successful modern societies. Ļe idea, though not the actual term, goes
back to David Hume and even to Ļomas Hobbes, pioneers in the utili-
tarian tradition. Social cooperation is much the same as what John Gray
calls “civil society” and Michael Oakeshott called “civil association” (Gray
ȀȈȈȂ, pp.ȁȃȅ,ȁȆȄ, and passim).
A version of utilitarianism centering on this concept appraises ethical
precepts, kinds of personal conduct, traits of character, institutions, and
policy choices according to how likely they are to serve or subvert social
cooperation. It is practically the same thing as a comparative-institutions
approach to evaluation. An adherent of this doctrine tries to contemplate
and compare alternative sets of mutually compatible institutions. Ļe cri-
terion of social cooperation, together with positive analysis in economics,
psychology, and other disciplines, recommends the precepts, attitudes,
behaviors, and so forth conducive to an extended order, as Hayek calls
it, and to many kinds of intimate relationships embedded in a healthy
extended order. Ļe criterion recommends truth-telling, promise-keeping,
justice, respect for persons and individual rights, respect for private prop-
erty, the transfer of property by consent, and even, within limits, honest
partiality towards oneself and one’s compatriots, friends, and associates.
single mind or committee, and not all the knowledge operating in it has been consciously
articulated.